A panel of scientists handpicked by the World Health Organization

Underlying both situations is the commonality of NOT seeing that person as a woman. You can't really change that. A person who removes gender from their speech is at least being polite about it.

I don't think that something is polite by virtue of it being less malicious.

Why is it malicious

How would you define "politeness"?

Isnt "hiding your true opinions and feelings in cases where you know they would hurt the other person" a textbook example of politeness?

This post was edited by Black XistenZ on Oct 28 2019 05:47pm

What's the polite way of address while simultaneously not engaging in lying?

These people want to force you into a corner. You are either with them or you are a bigot.

I call scaly a she even though i think hes a he out of courtesy because he asked and small lie doesn't bother me but it probably helps with his mental self image

I just realized im a really nice person 🤔

You're Canadian, it's been bred into you.

It is from the perspective of whether you're invalidating someone's gender.



I think it comes down to whether we associate something that is "more polite than doing X" = "polite". That's the cornerstone of this current conversation, I think. Is using "they" more polite than using "he"? Yes, and I would encourage someone to utilize the former rather than the latter 10/10 times. However, just because it's comparatively more polite doesn't necessarily mean that it's polite in and of itself.



Calling people "bigots" or using gotcha' tactics isn't really my M.O.



I don't know that there is a way completely. There's merely gradation, and using "they" is certainly preferable to using "he" in such a situation.